Habit: Annual. Stem: decumbent to erect, glabrous, hairy, glandular, or tufted-woolly-hairy. Leaf: simple, 1--3-pinnate-lobed or -dissected, generally alternate, margins entire, toothed, or lobed, tips acute, acuminate, or mucronate; basal generally in rosette; cauline generally reduced. Inflorescence: flowers 1--many in bract axils. Flower: calyx membranous between lobes, membranes splitting or expanding in fruit; corolla > calyx, lobes generally ovate, acute or acuminate. Fruit: spheric to ovoid; chambers 3; valves separating from top, to base and detaching or not to base and staying attached to receptacle. Seed: 3--many, yellow to brown, gelatinous when wet. Species In Genus: +- 40 species: western North America, South America. Etymology: (Filippo L. Gilii, Italian naturalist, 1756--1821) Note: Stamens, styles said to be exserted protrude beyond fused part of corolla, that is, beyond corolla throat. Other taxa in TJM (1993) moved to Aliciella, Lathrocasis, Linanthus, Navarretia, Saltugilia. Gilia mexicana A.D. Grant & V.E. Grant recently found in San Diego Co. Unabridged Note:Gilia can be challenging to identify. Several small-flowered species are only cryptically different from one another and many traits overlap. In order to successfully use the key, it is important to note pattern and distribution of flower color at the time of collection, as it may fade upon drying. Depauperate specimens may be particularly difficult if not impossible to identify using ordinary means. Descriptions of flowers follows previous authors (Day 1993; Grant & Grant 1956) in subdividing fused part of corolla into tube (basal part with parallel sides) and throat (flared part distal to tube). It is important to note that in some cases these definitions do not refer to homologous parts of the corolla.eFlora Treatment Author: J. Mark Porter

Markers link to CCH specimen records. Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues. Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).